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A bell barrow and three disc barrows west of Fargo Road ammunition compound

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012170
Date first listed:: 17-Apr-1955

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012170
Date first listed:: 17-Apr-1955
Date of most recent amendment:: 06-Jun-1995

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Durrington
District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Winterbourne Stoke
National Grid Reference:: SU 10535 44352

Reasons for Designation

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. Two of the best known and the earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site. The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many grouped into cemeteries. The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use. In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified as nationally important.

Disc barrows and bell barrows, the most visually impressive form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from 1600-1200 BC. They occur either in isolation or in round barrow cemeteries. Disc barrows were constructed as a circular or oval area of level ground defined by a bank and internal ditch and containing one or more central or eccentrically located small, low mounds, covering burials, usually in pits. The burials are normally cremations and are frequently accompanied by pottery vessels, tools and personal ornaments. The bell barrows were constructed as single or multiple mounds covering burials often in pits and surrounded by an enclosure ditch. The burials in bell barrows appear to be those of aristocratic individuals and are also frequently accompanied by weapons, personal ornaments and pottery vessels. Both types of barrow are rare nationally with only 250 examples of disc barrows known of which 29 are located within the Stonehenge area and 250 examples of bell barrow known nationally of which 30 are located within the Stonehenge area. This group of monuments will provide important information on the development of this area during the Neolithic and Bronze Age.

Details

The monument includes a group of four round barrows west of the Fargo Road ammunition compound, south of the Packway. The group contains a bell barrow and three disc barrows. The bell barrow is located on the east side of the group on the western perimeter of the ammunition compound. The central mound is 2.5m high and 28m in diameter and is surrounded by a berm 7m wide and a ditch 0.8m deep, from which material was quarried during the construction of the barrow. The overall diameter of the barrow is 52m. It was partially excavated in the 19th century. The three disc barrows are located to the west of the bell barrow. All three are of similar appearance, surviving as low spread mounds, each surrounded by a berm or level platform, a ditch and an outer bank. The disc barrow 20m to the north west of the bell barrow has an overall diameter of 51m. This barrow was partially excavated in the 19th century. Further excavation in 1961 revealed a circle of stakeholes surrounding a grave that had been robbed in antiquity, but which still contained a bronze awl. The disc barrow west of this has an overall diameter of 64m, while the third disc barrow, to the south, is 60m across. Both these examples were also partially excavated in the 19th century, and again in 1961 when a circle of stakeholes surrounding an empty grave, together with associated finds of beads, leather and an awl were found in the southern barrow, and a secondary cremation in the western barrow. The post and wire fence which crosses the bell barrow on the western side of its mound and the security fence which crosses the ditch of the bell barrow on its eastern side are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 10376
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 213
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 221
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 221
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 221
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 166
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 166
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 166
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 166
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 38, (), 367
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 58, (), 241
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 58, (), 63-5
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 58, (), 65-6
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 58, (), 58-63

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.